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Local Tournament Report – 7/23/14 Comics and More (War of the Light Month 2)

The Format: 400 point Sealed with two boosters of War of the Light. No outside anything, except we can play any rings, batteries, and constructs from month 1. The judge also let us include the green ring and shield construct from the scenario pack. I didn’t have those.

What I pulled:

WOL003Sinestro Corps Recruit

WOL005Green Lantern Recruit

WOL005Green Lantern Recruit

WOL007Blue Lantern Recruit

WOL009Controller Construct

WOL027Graf Toren

WOL027Graf Toren

WOL029Brother Hymn

WOL039Kryb

WOL053Swamp Thing

What I Played:

“Oh look, that ‘Lost Lantern’ is standing next to two other people. They found him!”

This match went slow. We were both playing characters we were unfamiliar with. I had created my team hastily and it took a couple of times reading through Swamp Thing’s card to get the gist of his Sort-Of! Hypersonic Attack. Apparently, he’s essentially FULLY Hypersonic and leaves Hindering Terrain wherever he goes. Wow! Of course, the small print will tell you that if your opponent is already sitting in Hindering Terrain then Swamp Thing’s Hypersonic 2: Electric Bugaloo-ish attack can’t touch them. Which makes about as much sense as the Hal Jordan Parallax not being able to fly (talk about the ring being a crutch). But whatever.

My opponent was trying to think of useful things to do with Sayd and Lyssa Drak. He may still be wondering at the time of this writing. This ended up being a mostly one sided affair, although the score would likely have been higher had we moved a little faster.

The action started out with both of us moving our teams out 8 spaces and then clearing. I equipped the Crossbow onto Graf Toren. My opponent had the first turn and moved his Sayd within firing range (9 squares) of my Graf Toren. His Karu-Sil and Lyssa Drak stayed back a few spaces further. Karu-Sil popped out her Pack and the turn ended. On my turn I went all out. I used the Blue Latern Recruit to TK Graf Toren into firing position on Sayd (since his range was shorter). Not wanting to miss, I used the Blue Latern Recruit’s Perplex and the Crossbow’s Ranged Combat expert to pump my attack up to 14! I would have also Outwitted Sayd’s Defense with Graf Toren‘s Traited Outwit, but Sayd’s Team Ability prevented me. At the time I had hoped that this encounter would be the last time I saw that TA this tournament because a lot of Graf Toren’s usefulness is based upon that Outwit. Sayd had 18 defense and was sitting in hindering terrain. Graf Toren’s 14 attack value meant I had no problem hitting Sayd; unfortunately, I rolled too well, knocking him back two squares. Sayd moved to click 3. It was then that White Lantern Swamp Thing entered the fray.

Sayd was still in hindering, and Karu-sil was too far away, but Lyssa Drak was within Swamp Thing’s Movement range and he slogged through the map until he was adjacent to both her and Karu-Sil. It was an easy 4 clicks of damage even after her traited Prob reroll.

On my opponent’s turn, he shot back with Sayd and missed Graf Toren who was in Hindering. The Pack used Sidestep to attack Swamp Thing, which moved to bog monster to Click 2 after all the dice rolls. Karu-Sil missed, but she did Perplex down one of Swamp Thing’s combat values, which also decreased his speed by three. Lyssa Drak then created a Barrier around herself that–unsurprisingly, given how useless her dial is–didn’t protect any of the other characters. I’m going to omit her from the rest of this battle report because, while she wasn’t KO’d, she never took a meaningful action for the rest of the game. Such is life for Lyssa Drak. Don’t blame me, I didn’t create her.

On my turn, Blue Lantern Recruit TK’ed Graf Toren, who then attacked Sayd again. This time he hit for 6 which caused 3 real damage. Swamp Thing attacked Karu-Sil and missed. Both teams cleared over the next two turns.

One my opponent’s turn The Pack and Karu-Sil both dug into Swamp Thing and knocked him down to his Regen/Stop click. Then it was my turn and the judge called time. I finished my turn by having Graf Toren knock Sayd to her last click and then Swamp finished her for the games only KO.

Seriously? Two freaking Weaponers? Who gets that lucky? I mean, besides HypeFox last month. Actually, now that I’m remembering HypeFox’s pulls last month, two Weaponers seems reasonable. Regardless, on paper, I would have given this match to my opponent easily. Then again, this game isn’t played on paper. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Actually, it kinda is.)

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: Shut up. I’m on a roll. Oh, and your proctologist called–he can see you Monday at 3:00pm to get that MAGICAL HORSESHOE PHYSICALLY REMOVED FROM YOUR POSTERIOR!!)

(EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’re trying to imply that luck had anything to do with–)

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: Hey, who’s telling this story? Me or you?)

(EDITOR’S NOTE: <sigh> Continue.)

Thank you. What I was trying to say was that anything can happen in HeroClix. And I knew that the more expensive Weaponer was an incredible threat. I had never faced one before, but I had read about him online. My opponent went first. We both moved up and cleared. He moved both his guys about 11 squares away and put the shield on the more expensive one. That was opening I needed. I used the same TK, Perplex, RCE trick that I had pulled on my opening shot in game one, but this time I could use Outwit. I hit his 20 ranged Defense and he took four clicks of damage. I got smart and had Swamp Thing throw up a Barrier between me and the Weaponers. Rather than use both of his characters just to try and get one attack through, my opponent just cleared.

On my turn Graf Toren hit again for 4 more clicks of damage. Then Swamp Thing gained Shape Change, moved in, hit for 4 damage and tied up both characters. My opponent got a couple of turns in a row and did manage to knock Swamp Thing down to click 5, but that was it. After that, Graf Toren knocked each Weaponer to their stop clicks and my other characters got the KOs. It’s a odd sight to see a Blue Lantern Recruit KO a Weaponer of Qward, but it happened. This game just happened to break my way, and I was lucky that I didn’t miss when I found that first opening.

So this match really came down to two pieces and their (mostly) one on one duel. Oh, and this was me and Hypefox in the final.

My opponent moved Parallax close enough to my forces that I got in an alpha strike with the same plan I used in the first two games. I couldn’t use Outwit, but I hit easily. He made his Impervious roll, so I did no damage! Swamp Thing couldn’t base him because he was too far away and instead moved halfway to Parallax. Parallax of course easily hit Graf Toren on his turn. Parallax’s allies just moved closer and in fact wouldn’t do much for most of the game.

I got another turn with a weakened Graf Toren and took a shot. It was a hit! Then Parallax used his top dial Probability Control and it turned my beautiful hit into a #$^#($^ Critical Miss!! I thought about basing Parallax with Swamp Thing, but he would be double tokened then and Parallax’s Pulse Wave would make short work of him. I cleared the rest of my forces.

Parallax scored another hit and knocked Graf Torn down to his last click. On my turn I tried to get him back to the battery or hide him with TK, but there just wasn’t much I could do. Parallax had been in Hindering Terrain this whole time so Swamp Thing was having trouble attacking him. I put Graf Toren in a place where Parallax would have to move out of Hindering for the KO.

“Oh, baby, I am SO out of my MIND right now! I’m’a go $@#%-up a Swamp Thing! I saw him on my way into what’s left of Coast City when I WASN’T FLYING, apparently!”

Everyone cleared and then Parallax moved out of Hindering and shot Graf Toren for the KO. On my turn I struck with Swamp thing and… missed horribly. I ended Swamp Thing’s movement next to my Power Battery hoping to use its Support to stay in this game. And that’s the way the game stayed. Parallax KO’d the Blue Lantern Recruit next. Swamp Thing probably got in 5 Ranged attacks before the game ended, but he couldn’t beat Parallax’s Defense and Probability Control. The game ends about 10 turns later (Stop Click + Regen +Support) and I haven’t done a single point of damage to his team. I was, however, once again able to capture every one of my attempts to damage Parallax on video. Here, then, is a repeating loop of every time I attacked Parallax this game:

This horrible defeat sent me from the penthouse to the outhouse as far as this tournament’s outcome was concerned. Because I was not just beaten, but beaten down to the point where I captured no points of my own, I found myself sliding from second place (and competing for a possible tournament win) to fifth (and, well, competing for nothing–which is exactly what fifth place awarded me!).

What I Learned:

WOL053Swamp Thing is darn tough and had a few tricks opponents wouldn’t expect (Barrier, TK, etc.). However, once an opponent realizes the benefits of keeping figures on Hindering Terrain, Swamp Thing’s offensive punch drops a lot. I would play him again on a team that could really make use of the “forest” of Hindering Terrain markers he makes. Batman Allies, or Poison Ivy maybe?

WOL007Blue Lantern Recruit is well worth his points as a Scarlet Witch/Enchantress/Mercy type of support figure. I’ll be playing him again soon.

WOL027Graf Toren was good but not great. If he can’t use his Outwit then he is a waste of points.

In a set full of ranged centered offense and defense, WOL037 Karu-Sil and her pack are well worth the points.

The full point WOL025The Weaponer of Qward is scary. The lesser pointed one is only just “good”.

HypeFox beat me again with a high point high-powered character. (WOL041Parallax (Hal Jordan)) Apparently I need to tell him the wrong day if I want to win the next WOL event. Or just pray that he gets, say, one month where he doesn’t pull a bomb that has all the specific TA’s and Powers that I’m trying to avoid.

The participation prize for this week (WOL104Guy Gardner (Green Lantern)) is really quite good for the points. I think with all the high point characters in the set people are looking past him. I’m looking forward to using him in constructed. (EDITOR’S NOTE: I second that emotion. His dial is great, and he’s the best Turn One Taxi in the game!)

WOL021Lyssa Drak is still useless. You could graft an Entity on her, and she’d still be useless. She’d suddenly be worth another $100, but she’d still be useless. Scientists in Luxembourg have just confirmed that Lyssa falls right before Kim on the K.U.S. (Kardashian Uselessness Scale). I may have made up the last 3 points, but I think you get my drift.

The WOL039Kryb that I pulled and didn’t use doesn’t look much better. Honestly, I read the Blackest Night TPB and the War of the Green Lanterns TPB in preparation for this Storyline Event, and I don’t remember this dude/gal/thing/creepfestival from any of those stories. UPDATE: I just Wiki’d her. Apparently it’s a her. Also apparently, her body just happens to have a cage where her back should be, and she goes around stealing the children of Green Lanterns, which begs all SORTS of questions. First of all, for the other members of Kryb’s species that don’t have access to a cosmic-level powerful, wish-granting ring, what exactly do they keep in the cages in their backs? As in, what sort of biosphere exists on their planet of origin that necessitated (or, really, even allowed) for the adopted adaptation of built-in back cages? Secondly, exactly how powerful are Yellow Lanterns (sorry, “Sinestro Corps. members”) in comparison to Green Lanterns? Because if she’he’it has taken as many Green Lantern children as she’s constantly depicted to have taken (I mean, every picture of her has legions of floating limbs sprouting from her back), wouldn’t some of these pissed-off parents (who, remember, ALL WIELD RINGS THAT BRINGS THEIR WILDEST, MOST OUTLANDISHLY CREATIVE THOUGHTS TO LIFE IN THE FORM OF GREEN ENERGY) have banded together and straight up murdered THE ALIEN PSYCHOPATH THAT HAS BEEN STEALING THEIR CHILDREN?! I know most Lanterns aren’t the killing type, but doesn’t all that go out the window when your kids are being stolen? Yet when they finally catch up with her, they send her to Zamaron to be rehabilitated? Uh, no. All of which leads to my last question: Are there big Kryb fans out there? I’m just wondering who you are and what you’re doing with your life.